Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho.

Summary: She was forced to see her distant brother, but instead she met with an old friend who she hadn't seen for six years. She hadn't exactly been looking forward to the weekend—and why was this guy treating her so coldly anyway? AU, KB.

Chapter 1

"Oh, lighten up, will you?"

Her father's voice harshly chastised her, and Botan scowled, eyes fixing a dark glare on the view outside the window. It was also at that moment that she realized her back was totally straight and it hurt, so she forced herself to relax. "I still don't understand why I have to do this."

"Because you two went out of the line this time," Yukio bluntly told her, his voice dripping with boundless fury. His daughter finally turned to look at him, though the expression on her visage remained unchanged. He did not let it get on his nerves—though the notion to just yell at her was awfully tempting. "What the hell were you thinking? I don't get you guys, I never did and I think I never will. I know you and your brother have your differences, but I never would have expected for you to ruin a family dinner. Our relatives—ones who had came from afar, mind you—were so shocked they left. Do you realize how embarrassing that is?" His voice was rising up a notch, he soon realized, and he forced himself to cool down. Mouthing to ten and inhaling and exhaling to regain his composure.

"He started it!" she growled vehemently, tempted to just open the door and throw herself on the road so she wouldn't have to go through all this. But no, she didn't want to die, so she refrained from doing so. "He was so out to get me! You heard him, didn't you? He said that I didn't earn enough money. So what? Just because he's a famous surgeon now, he thinks he has the right to criticize me? To judge me?"

"Botan." Her father spoke as evenly as possible, but anyone could tell the underlying irritation evident in the tone he used. "He never said that. All he did was offer you a job at his hospital. He thought you needed the financial help."

"He implied it," she huffed, body slightly relaxing as her tense shoulders slumped down and she leaned back in the chair, her back colliding against the seat. "And what was that stupid grin? It was so mocking!"

"Botan," he said again, this time drily, "you work as a waitress at an old restaurant no one even goes to anymore. What does that tell you?"

The girl shot him an odd look, her eyes reflecting hurt as her expression contorted to one that implied her feeling of being betrayed. "Great. First Souta and now you? Thanks, dad."

Yukio expelled the umpteenth heavy sigh. His hands gripped on the wheel, nails threatening to sink through as his own wrath shone through. "You guys need to get over this—whatever this is. You're 20, and he's 23; maybe it's time you two start growing up!" he roared, watching as surprise flitted over her features. "I've been patient all this time, but now I won't have it anymore. You two need to settle your own problems." He turned away from her to flick his dark purple orbs to the tall, familiar building coming into view. He whirled a corner and halted the car so abruptly that Botan would have been flung forward into the mirror if it wasn't for the belt keeping her still. His ears distinctly caught the sound of her unbuckling her belt and he averted his attention back to her. The look on his face was dead serious, leaving no more room for games and arguments. "Now get out. Maybe by the time I pick you up, you'd be more of a refined, matured woman than a whiny little girl." And then, for emphasis, he reached around her to open her door. "Well?" he insisted with an impatient edge in his voice as she made no move to leave.

Botan continued to stare at him with that deep frown marring her forehead for what felt like forever before she eventually made a 'hmph'ing sound and allowed one leg to peek through the open door. Leaning forward, she inched the rest of her body out of the car and turned around to angrily slam the door. She could have sworn the window cracked a little under her brute force, but couldn't afford to give a damn as she watched the car drove off to disappear into the long line of vehicles on the busy road.

"Well, this is just fantastic," she murmured under her breath in a grudging tone before she swung her backpack over her shoulder. Huffing a little at the heavens for being cruel to leave her to deal with this awful fate, Botan then whipped around on her red high heels, pushing the dark sunglasses on the top of her head down to the bridge of her nose as she fixated her gaze on the apartment complex standing tall before her.

She still hated to see it no matter how many times she had gone here with her father to visit her annoying brother. Mostly because she remembered the first time she came Souta had been showing off how better he was compared to her. It had always been that way for the two siblings—a harsh relationship with deep, endless rivalry. When they were kids, it had been friendly. Then they became teenagers, and it grew into pride-turned-ego, neither refusing to give up and acknowledge the other one as a better individual. Now they were adults and it was brutal, harsh, and filled with so much hatred and animosity that they wanted nothing to do with each other. Her brother had a narcissistic streak, whilst she had the knack of being a stubborn-headed mule. It was no wonder they couldn't get along with one another. And the prospect of spending her otherwise fun-filled weekend with a plastic surgeon who had nothing better to do than make her life miserable was less than welcome.

Botan knew that there was no other way around this, however. She had to just face it and get this whole ordeal over with. How long was a weekend anyway? Two days. 48 hours. 2880 minutes. And 172800 seconds—wait, why the hell was she counting?

Shaking her head lightly at herself, Botan heaved a heavy sigh as she began to walk her way to the average-length set of stairs. She eyed a furious old woman trying to get into her taxi with her large luggage which refused to just enter the small car as she reached the top. Well, at least some people were going through worse days than her. With a light shrug of a shoulder, Botan decided—oh well, how bad could this be? And went in through the large set of doors. She swore that this place grew bigger with each time she came here, but she soon brushed that thought off from her head as she felt as if that would have meant a slight victory on her brother's part.

Ignoring the weird looks she was receiving from the other tenants—probably due to her torn baby blue pants and revealing red-striped white tank top that left little to the imagination—Botan strolled idly to the elevator and pressed the button up before waiting patiently for the elevator to come down. Five seconds passed and she heard a familiar 'ding', and literally sprinted inside as the doors slid open before pressing a button to a certain floor. A few others chased after the elevator, though the doors shut close before any of them made it in time. Botan felt bad, but she couldn't exactly ignore the sense of relief that overtook her as she realized she was alone in the limited space. She loathed being in cramped areas more than anything and considering the bad day she was having, she was not exactly in a fairly good mood.

The moving motion of the lift came to a sudden stop and Botan curled a strand of blue hair around her index finger as she observed the set of doors sliding open. She stepped out, turning to the right as her brain tried to recall the location of her brother's apartment. It wasn't as if she was forgetful—no, she just didn't bother to remember. She racked her memories for a little while whilst she walked along the long hallway, flicking her thumb and middle finger together as a revelation smacked her across the face. Right, apartment 1201!

She looked up from the red-carpeted floor—why did they have the red carpet anyway? This wasn't a five-star hotel, you know! Well, it sort of resembled one, but… Bleh, whatever—to the number nailed on the mahogany-sculptured door before her. Oh, what do you know? She was already here without even noticing. She could just slam a fist on the door just to irk her big brother, but resisted the urge to as she realized the sound would only attract unwanted attention to her from the other tenants living nearby. So she settled with ringing the bell, tapping her foot against the ground beneath her as she waited for the person at the other side of the door to answer. The soft padding of the front of her heels against the reflecting floor came to a stop as the click of the doorknob unlocking resounded in her ears, dread filling her at the prospect of seeing Souta's face—no doubt frowning with a thin angry line attached on his mouth.

She gribbed the right strap of her backpack in her rosy nail-polished fingers, the tips threatening to dig into the linen fabric as she anticipated her brother's taunting smirk, to which she would throw the bag into his face in upfront retaliation. Her supple figure tensed as the knob turned and she inhaled a sharp intake of breath, ready to fling her backpack in a moment's call as the door swung open to reveal—a guy with long, unruly red hair and wide, emerald eyes?

"What?" Botan blinked at the man staring back at her, her baffled-laced-shock expression matching the one on his physiognomy as they stood there gazing at each other. A long pause seemed to drag on before she broke out of the spell. "Er, who are… Oh. Oh." Her look of recognition danced over her countenance as her jaws dropped open to gawk at him in awe. By the time she managed to collect herself, he was already sporting his usual stoic mask. "Shuichi?" she uttered in a whisper of disbelief. "Shuichi Minamino? Is that really you?" It was stupid to ask when the telltale signs of his identity was presented so blatantly in front of her—that red hair and those green orbs could only belong to one person, after all—but she couldn't help it, considering they hadn't seen each other for six years. Sure, she didn't recognize him at first—he'd grown taller and the streaks of fiery crimson was longer and his body was more lean and muscular than before… Wait.

A bright scarlet hue colored her pearl white cheeks as she finally noticed the state of dress he was in—or lack thereof, in this case. The boy had one towel wrapped around his still damp hair, the droplets of water soaking at the tip dripping to the floor and she couldn't help but take note of the few that trickled down his well-sculptured torso—since when did Shuichi Minamino grow muscles and when did he get abs? Thank god for the sweats that served to cover the lower parts of his form, or Botan would have been reduced to an unconscious, nose-bleeding mess.

She blinked slowly, as if to snap out a trance before she realized she was giving him the biggest checking of the century. She inwardly delivered a kick to her own shin, scolding herself for staring for too long. Hoping against the inevitable that Shuichi had failed to notice—though that was less than likely considering he noticed basically everything just about everything—Botan looked up to give the boy a sheepish grin. "Long time no see?" she said unsurely, wondering what the hell was going on.

Shuichi's mouth curled upwards slightly into a tight smile—it was obvious he noticed her intense gazing, but he made no move to acknowledge it, much to her relief. "Long time, indeed," he admitted with a soft voice, before stepping aside to allow her some room to enter. "Did you… did you come here to see your brother?" he asked her after a short, hesitant as he ogled her step inside, taking a note of the skin of her long, smooth legs peeking through the gashes of her pants as she took off her high heels and arranged them properly by the exit. He looked away just in time for her to whirl her head to him before he spun around and shut the door close behind him, unlocking it all the while.

"Er," she paused as she observed the key he slid in into his right pocket, pondering how he could produce a key to her brother's apartment or possess one, for that matter before she remembered he just asked her a question. She cleared her throat, swiftly forming an answer. "I'm supposed to be staying here—for the weekend," she informed him in a straightforward manner, figuring she might as well cut to the chase than beat around the bush.

"Oh." For a moment, she could have sworn there had been a tiny fracture in the impenetrable expression on his face, but she had little time to ponder it as he quickly slipped his stoic mask back into place. "I see." He nodded slowly, permitting a moment for the information to sink in.

"I take it you're not exactly partial to it?" she blurted out before she could stop herself. Her eyes then grew wide in shock over her own words and she promptly slammed a hand to her lips. "Oh—wait, I didn't mean it that way. I just—"

"Rest assured, Botan," he cut her short, his voice awfully curt in a way that made her feel as if she was talking to a businessman—maybe he was; Shuichi did harbor an interest in business… but that was six years ago and she didn't know if he was still the same. She snapped out of her musings as his voice went on, "I don't particularly mind it—you are his sister, after all. Though I do recall you two being on less than good terms—if anything you were always trying to bite each other's heads off with each meeting. I also remember your arguments getting on my nerves a few times, but let's not dwell on that, shall we?"

His words took her off guard, leaving her in a state of utter disbelief as he calmly strolled past her and into the hallway. She stared at his disappearing back before slowly following after him, wondering idly to herself what in the world happened to the old Shuichi. For as long as she could remember, he was never the type to be so… brutally honest with anyone—no, if anything he would give smooth, swiftly planned out lies out of his consideration for other people's feelings. But then again, they had grown apart over the long years and even before they went on their separate ways, so maybe Botan didn't know him all that much anymore.

"Although I am afraid I may have bad news—or good news, depending on your perspective," Shuichi abruptly spoke and Botan blinked to break out of her reverie. She turned to look at him, watching as he rubbed his hands on the towel to quickly dry his hair.

"And… what exactly is it?" she asked warily, that feeling at the pit of her stomach telling her she wasn't going to like where this conversation was heading to.

"Your brother," He threw the drenched towel on the couch, and Botan eyed him as he flopped down on it, his fingers quickly finding the remote seated neatly by his side, "is on a business trip," he finished, leaving her completely startled and speechless as he flipped on one channel after another for something interesting. "Boring, boring, boring…" he mumbled under his breath, blissfully ignoring Botan's loud, frantic footsteps hurrying to his direction. A scowl and he resisted the urge to pulverise the girl under his dark stare as she stood in front of him, blocking the TV from his view. He settled with a blank gaze as he looked up at her panicked-laced-furious expression.

"What do you mean, he's on a business trip?" Her voice rose up a notch, nearly resembling a shriek and it made him expel a deep sigh.

"Didn't he tell you anything at all?" Shuichi responded instead with another question, still trying to look around her so that he could spare even a fleeting glance at the TV. "He texted you, didn't he?" he asked her absent-mindedly, more focused on his desire for entertainment than her, really.

Botan paid no attention to the lack of interest she could sense from the redhead as she gave out her own sigh, though hers dripped with a tinge of exasperation. "That's the thing, Shu—er, I mean, Minamino. He didn't." Something told her he wouldn't appreciate her addressing him so casually—that something being the look of slight displeasure on his handsome features, by the way—and she quickly corrected herself.

"Well, I suppose that makes sense. You guys don't actually keep in contact, do you? Aside from family unions, I mean." Shuichi eyed in silent amusement as the girl's visage contorted into fury as the words left his lips, the shaking of her form a blatant proof of her brewing irritation. He smirked, knowing he was threading on thin ice but figuring that he should drop the subject… for now. All sneering aside, Shuichi pulled the most serious expression he could manage and regarded her with a firm voice. "He's at Okinawa and he probably won't be back for another four days or so… so yeah, for the time being, you're stuck with me."

Figures. Leave it to her brother to leave her uninformed about this relevant piece of information!... Wait a second! No wonder he agreed so easily to let her stay here—it was because he wouldn't even be here. Why that conniving little—and he left her alone with Shuichi, of all people? The nerve of that bastard—wait again. Pause. Rewind. Stop. What?

"What are you talking about?" Botan felt as if a dark cloud was overlooming on the top of her head. "What do you mean, stuck here with you?"

Shuichi threw the remote on an unoccupied space on the couch as it began to dawn on him that she wasn't planning to budge until they finished their discussion. It didn't particularly bother him that she would be living here—after all, it was only for a couple of days—but if they were going to get along, he knew he had to play along with her—and she had to stop blocking the TV.

Shuichi ran a hand through his now nearly-dry hair, deciding to grant her with his full attention now as he leaned back in the couch and pinned a fixed gaze on the younger girl's form. "I've been living here for two months now. You wouldn't know since you would never bother to come and visit unless your father forced you to—but I've been Souta's roommate in this fancy little apartment ever since I got kicked out of mine."

"Oh." She nodded her head in understanding before a certain part of his elaboration seized her curiosity. "You got kicked out? How?"

He shrugged. "Scamming issues."

"Scam—wait, you mean to tell me, you, Shuichi Minamino, actually got scammed?" Botan pointed at him with an accussing finger, her pools of amethysts blinking at him in an innocent, though slightly befuddled manner.

For a moment, the 21-years old redhead actually seemed offended. She swiftly dropped her finger, promptly hiding her hands behind her back as if afraid he would saw her wrists off.

"It was a miscalculation on my part," His voice sounded too tart for her taste, "but yes, yes, I did. And your brother was nice enough to let me stay for a little while until I get on my feet and earn enough money to buy my own place—or I can build one; that way I won't have to pay the rent."

"I wouldn't say nice, per se—you know he never gives out handouts unless there's something for him to gain in it—er, not that any of it matters." Sweat beaded on her forehead as she caught the uninterested stare he gave her. The old Shuichi would have laughed his head off when she rambled. This new Shuichi, however, had no intentions of acknowledging her. It abruptly occurred to her that she didn't exactly like this newly-formed version of her former redheaded friend. Granted, she hadn't kept in contact with him for six years—but it wasn't all her fault. Wasn't he the one who ignored her calls?—or did he change his number again? No matter. The point is that she didn't think that after such a long time of not seeing him he would have changed this much. The sweet, mild-mannered Shuichi was gone now—replaced only by a insensitive person with a cold-blooded personality and a tendency to irk her to no end with his taunting remarks of the relationship she shared with her brother. She sighed and shook her head, quickly brushing off the thoughts laced with prejudice conjuring themselves in her head as she convinced herself to give him a chance. This was Shuichi, after all, and they were long time friends… even though the air surrounding them now wasn't one which would resemble the preferred description.

With another breath of resignation leaving her lips, Botan finally budged from the front of the TV—and was that a sigh of relief she heard coming from Shuichi?—and flopped down on the seat beside him just as he grabbed the remote and began to flip the channels again. She was suddenly aware of her aching shoulder—she didn't even realize she was still holding on to her backpack—and she promptly slid the straps off of her, throwing the bag on the floor beside her feet.

She rubbed her sore shoulders, leaning back in the couch and sighing in content at the feel of something soft and comfortable pressing against her back. Come to think of it, she went here with her father and the journey had been for more than six hours and she hadn't even realized she was actually tired. The exhaustion finally dawned on her and she placed a hand over her mouth, a yawn eventually escaping her. Her eyelids fluttered close, then she heard Shuichi turn off the TV, felt the loss of weight as he got up from his side on the couch, but didn't bother to ask where he was heading as the sleepiness was beginning to slowly eat away at the remnants of her consciousness. She felt something warm being placed around her torso, but couldn't afford to open her eyes as she was too tired to care at the moment.

Maybe a little nap wouldn't hurt. Hopefully New Shuichi wouldn't kill her when he realized she fell asleep on his couch—Her brother always reprimanded her when she did. Said something about it being too expensive to have her saliva dripping all over it. Heh. As if—then again, maybe he really wouldn't, Botan thought as she finally opened her eyes to fix on whatever it was that covered her. A brown leather jacket was wrapped around her like a blanket, serving to offer her some warmth in the air-conditioned room as the scent of roses invaded her nostrils. Roses. Only Shuichi smelled of roses.

She smiled, allowing the smell to surround her as slumber finally overtook her.

A/N: This is another short story I had planned—alongside Buss—that I just had to write no matter what before the ideas get lost in the flood of other unimportant things in that one thing I call my brain. It probably won't last for more than five chapters—but hey! It's a short story. I might finish it this month, depending on how busy I might be—or the next. Either way, it hopefully wouldn't take up much time. It won't even be longer than five chapters anyway… Hopefully. :Gulp: I'm not exactly convincing, huh? Er, never mind. Well, hope you enjoyed it anyway!